Since November 2006, ACTED has been working on a UNICEF funded program for Water and Sanitation and Health Promotion in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The program aims to provide water, latrines, hand washing facilities and hygiene education to approximately 8000 children in 90 schools in the Neelum Valley by the end of July 2007.

For the hygiene promotion component of the project ACTED has been implementing a six phase program using "Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation" (PHAST) and Child-to-Child (CTC) methodology, which provides a framework for the active participation of children in the trainings and for turning the children into active agents of change within their families and communities.

The hygiene promotion activities included:

- Analysis of problems regarding the hygiene facilities and practices - Discussion of barriers (to help the children finding ways of blocking the spread of diarrhea) - Choosing improved hygiene behaviors - Presentation of children to mothers about PHAST - Field visits where children and mothers point out good and bad hygiene practices in their own community - Hygiene competition with quizzes and debates - Street theatre with skits about hygiene practices, games and drama competition.

The involvement of mothers and non-school going children has been an important aspect of the hygiene promotion activities, avoiding focusing exclusively on school students. What's more, UNICEF hygiene kits have been distributed to all children.

The competitions and theatre have also been a great success, bringing together children, parents and teachers from different schools to share their knowledge about hygiene while having a great time. The theatre group "Eye View" has been responsible for hosting the street theatre together with ACTED hygiene promoters.

A Knowledge, Practices and Coverage (KPC) survey was conducted at the start of the program to determine the quality of the hygiene practices and identify specific needs in terms of hygiene education. The survey will be repeated at the end of the program to assess the impact of the hygiene promotion activities on the knowledge and practices of the beneficiaries.

And last, at the end of the program the water and sanitation facilities will be formally handed over to the Education Department to ensure sustainability in the long term. At school level, School Environment Committees, consisting of 2 students and 2 teachers, have been formed and trained and will be responsible for maintaining the facilities and fostering continued proper hygiene practices.